Category: Spain

Roman Roaming in Spain; Part 4

Posted in 2024 Trips, Portugal, Roman Ruins, Spain1 Comment

Monday 3 June

Waving goodbye to Merida, today it was time to cover some ground and get north. We needed some cooler weather for us as well as Jazz. He’d been a superstar but it was a bit hot for him really. We decided we couldn’t be so close to Portugal without dipping our toe in the Atlantic. We made our way to Orbitur Camping de Foz, north of Lisbon and south of Porto.

We were happy to get on the campsite as we’d had two days of strip washing and we were desperate for a full blown shower and pamper. The site was quite luxurious – it came with the price tag of that too €37pn, but the beach, just a hundred or so metres walk from the campsite,was spectacular. The temperature as much more tolerable too and it was quickly decided that we would enjoy two nights here to recharge.

The afternoon was spent chilling by the van along with a walk on the beach, and we enjoyed a delicious meal of Prawn Gameretti for dinner whilst enjoying a stunning sunset. It was a shame the pitches didn’t have a sea view and we couldn’t get onto the beach after 8.30pm as they locked the gate.

We had a great night sleep though and woke feeling human again!

Tuesday 4 June

A day off at the beach! That’s literally all we did. We had a full on brunch, a few hours sunbathing on the beach. A lazy lunch washed down with a bottle of red. More chill time on the beach. I finished my book. We napped. It was perfect!

Wednesday 5 June

Today we headed to Porto. We found a private car park which allowed overnight parking for motorhomes (under 6m as it was a small carpark) and arrived early. We got a spot, and within 10 mins on foot we were in the centre of Porto, of course – sipping a port!

Porto was lovely! Colourful building lined the river and boats offering trips lined up. There was musicians along the front and people everywhere. We had a delicious early lunch (I had the Porto special which was Francesinha and was AMAZING) Francesinha is Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured ham, linguiça, or chipolata over which sliced cheese is melted and a piper hot sauce ladeled over. It is indulgent but boy was it good.

Needing to walk off our indulgent lunch, we walked up the hill and took in the sites at the top and the views. The cathedral was lovely and we obviously had some port stops on route!

Sadly Jazz wasnt allowed on the trams so we couldn’t ride on those, but other than that we enjoyed a very relaxed day of just bimbling along without a timescale, list of things to see or anything like that. We even retreated to the van late afternoon for a siesta! We were beginning to relax!

Our park for night stopover in Porto.

After a shower – the car park had showers in and the pressure was insane! – we got our glad rags on and went to see Porto as the sunset. This time we based ourselves on the opposite side of the river, the side which is home to the wine caves. As it happened we found a prefect seat immediately, and stayed there all night! It was such a great evening. Port, some tapas, some amazing views and some lovely music from a guy who was playing his Indian flute. It really was a lovely evening and we very much enjoyed our time in Porto.

Thursday 6 June

It was time to really hit the road north today. We were on the road by 8am and by lunchtime we had arrived at the Tower of Hercules, on the northern coast of Spain near La Cura INSERT

The Tower of Hercules is the best preserved Roman Lighthouse in the world. IT holds UNESCO status and there’s no doubting why. It’s beautiful! We enjoyed our visit inside (Jazz couldn’t go in – but luckily it was much cooler so he could snooze in the van!) and climbed all the stairs to get to the top. The views were also lovely. Isn’t it amazing to consider this has been guiding ships since the 1AD.

From The Tower of Hercules, we made our way an hour south to another UNESCO site, this time the town of Lugo. The town hold UNESCO status for its amazing example of Roman walls, in fact they are the only complete Roman walls in the world.

There is a free Aire on the outskirts of the historic area, complete with water and waste emptying so we parked up and made our way into town.

The walls are magnificent but the town area around them is a little run down. It was sad to see actually, graffiti was abundant (although thankfully not on the actual walls) and to be honest, whilst walking on the path on top of the walls at times it felt like we were going through a war zone. The streets inside the town walls have character and we enjoyed a mooch around stopping for a beer here and there too.

The highlight though was doing the walk AROUND the walls you got a great sense of their size and magnificence.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner in Gandalf before an early night. The Aire was nice and quiet and we had an early start tomorrow!

Friday 7 June

We had an early start today, the plan was to get to Bilbao for 1pm, when we’d pre booked a return to England vets appointment for Jazz. Before we waved bye to Lugo, we stopped for some pictures at the Roman bridge.

The vets appointment went really well and we managed to get Jazz’s tablet provided and administered for just €5 which is the cheapest we’ve ever encountered. The vet spoke great English and we were really pleased it had gone smoothly. Link to vets Google here

The weather in northern Spain had really turned by now so we just kept driving and kept driving! By 5pm, we had reached our first stop of this trip, Châtelaillon-Plage, just south of La Rochelle. The weather forecast had implied that this was one of the few areas that wasn’t raining, and it was accurate. Hurrah! We had a quick set up at the aire), and went for a final dinner – at our favourite beach bar/restaurant. We had an early celebration for Keefy’s birthday, and had the most idyllic evening which was a perfect end to our trip.

Saturday comprised of a journey back north to Calais, a hop across on the tunnel and a journey back to Norfolk.

We’d covered almost 4000 miles, had a new clutch, seen some tremendous Roman sites and more. It had been tiring but was a complete success, despite some challenges with dog transportation, heat and lack of campsites in the areas we needed them for Roman sites.

We’d got a belter of a term ahead, but lots more van life summer plans so stay tuned and we’ll catch up again then!

Roman Roaming in Spain; Part 3.

Posted in 2024 Trips, Roman Ruins, Spain1 Comment

Thursday 30th May

Today we turned our wheels inland once more, this time into the hills towards Ronda. We had a fairly slower start to our morning as we only had a short journey to complete, we headed for Setenil de las Bodegas, a small town set within the southern Spanish hills, that is known for it’s whitewashed houses that are built into the surrounding cliffs.

Sadly, as we arrived into town we encountered a problem with our clutch. We managed eventually to park, and desperately tried to ignore the horrendous smell coming from our bonnet, and our impending sense of doom in the pits of our tummy. We took ourselves off for a wander down the hill and through the two picture perfect streets. The cliff over hanging with houses built into them was a sight to behold, and we enjoyed spending an hour experiencing it. But as I’m sure you can imagine, our hearts were perhaps not fully invested in the visit. We made our way back to the van and managed to get back on the road, I couldn’t tell something wasnt right and sure enough after 5 or 6 miles, Gandalf spectacularly gave up. Luckily in a position that we could limp off road and into safely but it was obvious our clutch had indeed gone.

Our European breakdown cover was with Just Campers and they were fantastic. Within 45 mins we had been joined by a low loader breakdown lorry and a separate car with an English speaker in it. We established that the Spanish word for clutch is embargue, not that they or we needed it, you could smell it a mile off. They loaded Gandalf onto the lorry, and us (including Jazz- phew) into the front. They asked where we wanted to be recovered to and we were delighted that Ronda was an option.

Half an hour later we had arrived at Ronda. The garage was on siesta and so we waiting outside, during which time I got permission from Just campers to book a hotel in Ronda. Luckily we managed to find a great place, Hotel Palacio De Hemingway which was right in the centre of the tourist area.

Once the garage returned from siesta, we were relieved to find that one of their mechanics also spoke some English and we were able to hand Gandalf’s keys over and retrieve a bag of essentials to see us through. It was looking like we’d be there for a few days as the garage were unsure whether we would get the new clutch in time for them to fit it before the weekend, at which point the garage would close until Monday. We tried to be upbeat about the situation and organised a back up plan of a hire car to see us through the weekend if needed.

Settled in our hotel, we were understandably a bit shaken! They looked after us so well, and after a freshen up and a beer, we decided to make the most of the location and carry on as had been the plan whilst we await news. That plan- To explore Ronda.

Ronda was wonderful. To feel so inspired and alive in a place when really we were stressed to the eyeballs and worried sick about how long Gandalf would be off the road for, really sums up how much we loved it there. The dramatic gorge that the bridge, dating from 1700s rises up out of is spectacular to say the least. The bullring also was a great place to explore (and dog friendly!). The bars and the tapas we enjoyed were delicious. We had a glorious afternoon and evening exploring the town, it really is a special place.

Friday 31 May

We awoke from our night of enforced luxury in the hotel to that sinking feeling of dread. What was today going to bring and how much was it going to cost us!

Trying desperately to remain positive we enjoyed an indulgent but fantastic breakfast. It was a la carte style and we could order as much as we liked! This kept us busy for almost 1.5 hours lol but we kept our promise to the waitress by not leaving any food waste!

During breakfast, I took the call from the garage. They had a new clutch on route, and they hoped to have it fitted by tonight. Great news! Even if the bill did make our eyes water!

With that in mind, we checked out of the hotel as late as we could and then spent the afternoon enjoying the Arab Bath ruins – dog friendly – whihc ahd the most fascinating pre visit video. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon sat in the shade of a bar (non alcoholic for me!) chatting to a couple of English brothers.

At 4pm we decided we needed a bit more of a leg stretch and I’ll be blowed, 5 mins later the phone rang. Our mechanic at the garage had worked through his siesta and fitted our clutch and pump. We were back on the road!

A mad dash back to the hotel to collect our belongings ensued and before we knew it we were back in receipt of our much loved wheels. Everything about this situation was great. It meant non of our food shop would spoil over the weekend with no electric etc. We could continue our journey. We were back in control!

We decided to do just a short journey in case of any problems but also because having spent the afternoon drinking 0% beer, I was in need of a very strong drink. We managed to get a space on Camping EL Sur on the outskirts of Ronda and by 5.45pm I had a large gin on the go!

Camping El Sur was another really lovely place to stop. Another one which we could have stayed a couple of nights at. It had a great pool, and lovely pitches and views. We enjoyed a delicious bbq, washed down with a local bottle of Ronda Red. Boy did they make good wine here.

Saturday 1 June

We reluctantly waved bye to Ronda today- our hope had been to get to Cadiz, but the campsite was full, so we decided to start heading north instead. We arrived in Cordoba just before lunchtime and parked in the central overnight parking area for motorhomes. This was a very well located Aire, just 10 mins from the historic centre. We had felt we would likely stay overnight here, however subconsciously we must have known we wouldn’t end up staying because we didn’t actually set the van into living mode when we left it to go for an explore.

Cordoba is a fabulous place. Full of Spanish charm, cobbled streets and an incredible Roman Bridge.

It also has 4 UNESCO sites- one of which is the entire town!

One of the others is the unique Cathedral Mosque, which we took turns to visit. It blew us both away. The marriage of the Muslim and Catholic architecture was stunning. Despite it being busy inside it still felt peaceful and just really really breathtaking.

We also visited the Alcazar of the Christian Monarchs which was dog friendly, and were in awe when we saw the Roman coffin that they have on display. Incredible!

By now it was still only 3pm and we’d confided in each other that neither of us felt happy with our proposed park up for the night. As much as I would have loved to indulge in some street drinks and tapas, something wasn’t feeling right about where we were parked, despite other vans being there. We went on to find some pretty horrendous and recent reviews mentioning people had been woken to someone trying to get in their door and other things. We made the decision to push on and head to Merida. Quite a drive, less than ideal, but ultimately, we will always follow our gut. It was also heating up rapidly, and the thought of spending the night in the van not being able to open the windows was NOT appealing!

4 hours later we arrived at Merida. I wont sugar coat it, I was pretty fed up- I felt like all we’d done was drive! I really wanted to stay at Cordoba, and was so disappointed to not feel happy with the car park there. Unfortunately there was literally no other option for us though, the campsites were too far away (45 mins plus) and Jazz wasnt allowed on the bus route anyway. We couldn’t get them on the phone to check availability before we detoured to them. I was starting to find Spain a bit of a challenge with the whole dogs on public transport and lack of campsites where we wanted them to be!

Our park up for Merida (because we couldn’t get on the campsite, Camping Merida, and even if we had, the lady was really rather rude!) was the Theatre car park which has recently been redeveloped into a Motorhome park up area. In contrast to Cordoba, it felt very safe and as such we settled in.

We walked into town for some drinks and a meal which we really enjoyed and although it was hot, we did sleep ok.

Because of this, and the fact there was so much to see in Merida, and he wanted me to not have to drive again tomorrow, Keith suggested (strongly) that we stay another night in our carpark in Merida. He was right to do this, even if we maybe had a slightly intense discussion about it!

Sunday 2 June

Because we’d made the decision to stay another day at Merida, it was strip washes all around! And a lazy morning, with a proper breakfast not just the cereal bars we’d been accustomed to because of our crazy itinerary!

We quickly found the tourist info, which was actually within the car park we were in, and discovered there were 59 Roman sites to discover in Merida. Keith wasn’t exaggerating- there was a lot to see! We paid for the combination ticket – 17Euros per person which allowed for us to visit them all. What a bargain.

We started at the amphitheater, which was just 10 mins walk from our carpark base. Happily, they accepted Jazz in his backpack, so we could explore the amptheatre and theatre ruins together.

Both were excellent and a great start for our Roman day. Next up, Keith went for a look around the city museum whilst me and Jazz indulged in some tapas, a beer and my book. This was more like it!

30 mins later Keith came out of the museum and I thought he was about to explode. Turns out they have a spectacular section of Roman Road which had been discovered – the main road from Cordoba to Merida. He insisted I went for a look whilst he had his own tapas and beer, and sure enough it was amazing. As was the chariot mosaic that was displayed in there too.

The rest of the day was spent exploring as many of the 59 sites as possible mainly tag teaming, whilst we kept Jazz in the shade of the bars.

My favourite was the UNESCO house, near to the bull ring. You could see plenty of original painted Roman walls. Incredible to see the colours and patterns as they would have been.

I also enjoyed the circus – where the chariot races had been. This was our 3rd of the trip but this one had the arena space left completely untouched, so you got a really good feel of the layout and scale of the race area.

The evening scene was fun too. Our favourite thing to do on both nights was go to the main square and enjoy a few glasses of the ridiculously delicious and also very cheap red wine, in front of their enormous air coolers which were a godsend, and watch the world go by. As dark fell, both nights we took ourselves to the Italian just off the main square – La Mafia, which has a lovely outside terrace which Jazz was welcome on, and we enjoyed two famous meals there. We hung out there til midnight on both night. Unheard of for us, but by then the temperature had fallen and the van was back to an acceptable temperature not only for Jazz, but for us too.

I’ve got to say, I arrived in Merida feeling grumpy. But I left Merida on the Monday feeling recharged, inspired and in awe. I think what we both loved about Merida was that because of the amount of ruins there you get a real sense of how the Roman city would have laid out. It a remarkable place to go and if you have any interest in the Roman Empire at all it’s’ definitely one to go to. So I suppose it’s only right that I do a public apology to Keefy for being such a grump when we arrived! Lol

Roman Roaming in Spain; Part 2

Posted in 2024 Trips, Roman Ruins, Spain, Waterside PitchesLeave a comment

May half term 2024- Our adventures in Spain

Monday 27th May.

Following our relax on the glorious beach at Moncofa, we waved goodbye to our retreat and headed inland towards Toledo, an ancient walled city sitting on a hill top high above the plains of Spain. (Yes we did keep saying “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the Plain”- happily no rain for us though!)

Our home for the night was the really great Camping El Greco, a really lovely campsite set about 3 km on the outskirts of Toledo. It would have been walkable in, but it was quite warm, and later in the day when we arrived, so we opted for a dog friendly cab, which the campsite arranged for us.

The approach into Toledo was brilliant, as you rise up the hill you begin to see the large walls of the town rise up in front of you. The historic old town within the town walls is made up of tiny cobbled streets that weave their way round in circles. It was a great place to spend some time getting lost in the streets and exploring the nooks and crannies.

Unfortunately for us, our visit being on a Monday prevented us from visiting some of the Roman museums and ruins within the town, but we enjoyed exploring the other aspects of the town including the Jewish quarter and as I said, the back streets including of course some refreshment stops along the way.

The Roman bridge which crosses the river below the town is a marvellous sight and we enjoyed taking some photos of that on our walk back to the campsite. We really enjoyed our stay on El Greco, it’s a great site with lovely showers and manicured pitches. We could have easily spent another couple of days just chilling there!

Tuesday 28th May

As we departed Toledo, we made a stop at the Roman Circus site on the outskirts of the city. Unlike the Circus ruins in Tarragona, the site here had been transformed into a park area and whilst they weren’t quiet as in tact as the ones in Tarragona, we both liked the sensitivity in which the park had been developed around the ruins. You got a good sense of the layout of the area that once was home to Roman Chariot races, with the paths winding around the park not too dissimilar to how we imagined the tracks would have been.

From Toledo we travelled back out to the coast. At this point our original ‘rough’ plan had gone out of the window. We were anticipating going to the coastal stops on our way back up to Calais, hence having gone inland yesterday to Toledo. But last night, over some delicious Toledo regional wine and a lovely meal at Gandalf, we floated the idea of perhaps being a bit more ambitious than originally planned. When I plotted the trip, I had put in 2 nights in most places, which obviously reduced the places we could visit, but gave us plenty of non driving rest days. However, trying to utilise public transport here in Spain with a dog was proving harder than in other places where we’ve managed well; generally dogs aren’t allowed on any buses, and so in reality it was becoming obvious that we’d either need to walk into towns or drive in (we left the bikes at home this time). If we were driving in then we may as well drive on each day too. Suddenly, this meant that we could probably achieve reaching the Northern coast of Spain where there is the most impressive Roman Lighthouse in the world. So thats how we found ourselves making our way 5 hours back to the coast to Cartagena, just 24 hours after driving 5 hours inland to Toledo!

We found a great private aire on the outskirts of Cartegena, there literally very few options for this place, and got ourselves checked in. The owners were really friendly, they’d ere also happy with awnings and chairs being out, and had a shower available. They kindly organised a dog friendly cab for us and by 2.30pm we were enjoying a stein of beer each in Cartegena.

Cartegena has a picturesque harbour and whilst we were there a huge super yacht belonging to one of the world’s richest men was in town too. Isn’t google amazing!

Our reason for visiting Cartegena was its Roman ruins of course, and after a nice tapas lunch we set about exploring. Sadly, despite having our dog bag, Jazz wasnt allowed in theatre ruins, but we found a great vantage point from the back and got some good pictures.

There is an excellent Roman museum and archeological park which Keith enjoyed – it’s only just recently opened up, whilst I enjoyed a couple of wines with Jazz in a nearby bar.

We were hoping to eat out, but again struggled to find anywhere serving tapas which surprised us, most placed weren’t serving it seemed. Perhaps it’s a town that comes to life when a cruise ship is in town, who knows. Keith really enjoyed the museum at Cartegena but for me I wasnt too fussed about the town if I’m honest. I’m not sure it was worth the 10 hours we’d spent getting there, perhaps if you had longer, or didn’t have a dog it would be different. Regardless, we enjoyed our stay on the Aire and had a great night sleep following some tasty local cheeses and meats that I’d managed to pick up at the spar on route back!

Wednesday 29th May

We were supposed to heading to Cordoba today but it was currently having a heatwave, so we decided to give it a few days to cool off there and we stuck to the coast. We headed for a fantastic private Aire on the outskirts of Malaga. We also managed to bagsie the last beach front space much to our delight having not booked in advance, so arriving around midday, having had a food shop at Cartengena and slightly lazier start to the day, we parked up and literally sat and enjoyed the view.

The beach in front of us was a pebble beach and a dog friendly one too, so great for us, but actually we didn’t even go down onto it! The view was so nice on our pitch, and we so enjoyed just chilling on our pitch that we didn’t move! We had a fantastic season food bbq for tea, and enjoyed the afternoon and evening immensely. This site would have been ideal to stay at for a few days, it had amazing showers and was on the bike path to cycle into Malaga which I’ve been told is a nice city. As our beach front paradise was only available for the one night though, we decided to just enjoy the site for once!

Roman Roaming in Spain; Part 1

Posted in 2024 Trips, Roman Ruins, Spain2 Comments

May half term 2024

Our adventures in Spain

Thursday 23 May

Our alarms were set for 2.50am, and we closed our front door at 3.30am. We were off on our European adventure! After a smooth journey to the Eurotunnel, we rolled onto our train at 07.36 and were in France by 9am French time.

Our destination for this trip was Spain, so today was all about covering some serious distance. We aimed for Chatelaillon Plage, just south of La Rochelle, for an overnight stop on the Aire there. It was well located for an evening wander, some sea air and the obligatory moules and frites and a carafe of vin blanc. It was actually our 9th wedding anniversary and it was the perfect place to celebrate!

We enjoyed our evening wandering down the promenade- seeing blue skies, and the moules and frites were gorgeous.

A brilliant place to aim for from Calais.

Friday 24th May.

We arose early and were in the road for 8am. Our aim was to take the scenic route to Tarragona, just south of Barcelona. We took the scenic route over the Pyrenees which was utterly spectacular.

We made a couple of stops, one for some local cheese and one for some picture stops. I loved driving the winding route over the Pyranees and the scenery was just phenomenal.

For such a pretty route across, the crossing itself into Spain wasn’t very inspiring at all. There was a lot of graffiti and it all looked rather derelict. Perhaps this is a town that comes alive in the winter months.

Our journey into Spain took us north up towards Tarragona on the coast – our first stop for the night. We had booked a Campsite– but on arrival it soon became clear that this wasn’t our cup of tea. It was heaving and felt more like a Butlins than a campsite. We later learnt that it was a National Holiday in Spain as well as UK so this would have explained the business. That and it being located on a beautiful sandy beach etc. Luckily, the campsite agreed to refund us – the pitch they had allocated us was awful, overlooking the bins and in the back of beyond. We were pleased to escape despite having been on the road for a long journey, we hit Search for Sites and went on to find a new place elsewhere. Luckily, just down the road I spotted an old car park which had some campers on. We pulled in and asked if it was ok to sleep there overnight. They all said yes, and so we pulled in and couldn’t believe our luck – the view was amazing and we couldn’t have got closer to the beach if we’d have tried.

We both managed to have a shower on the beach to freshen up and Keith couldn’t wait to get a bbq sparked up before hitting the sack! A great start to our trip- even if it hadn’t quite gone to plan!

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qZoKEssAUxQCnhCU6?g_st=icGoogle map pin for location

Saturday 25 May

The downside of our change in plan for the campsite was that it meant we had to drive into Tarragona for our visit, rather than catching the bus as originally planned. (In hindsight I think this worked in our favour- reasons why to follow).

After a lovely swim in the sea to wake us up, we showered, changed and made our way to Tarragona.

We found parking that we could fit into at Parking Rambla Nova by telepark by Embark. It was nice and central and we were so happy to here. We did a great circuit of the Roman sites, starting at the theatre ruin, then going along the promenade to the spectacular Ampitheatre, which has the most incredible backdrop of the beautiful Blue Sea.

Happily the Ampitheatre was Dog Friendly as long as we carried him, which we were more than happy to do. I was particularly pleased about this because I had expected us to have to take turns visiting whilst the other looked after Jazzy, our pooch.

After the Ampitheatre we made our way to the old chariot race area – the circus – again dog friendly and again, super interesting.

We had a quick lunch before exploring some of the streets within the historic city centre.

Soon we found the most extraordinary Roman Walls that we’ve ever seen. The area around the walls had been landscaped beautifully and we really loved our exploration of the park (Jazz enjoyed being carried once more!)

As we left, we made a stop at the aqueduct on the outskirts of town. This impressive ruin gives Pont du Gard a run for its money – with the added bonus that you can walk along the water channel, and it is nowhere near as busy.

Tarragona had been the most terrific place to kick start our Spanish Roman adventure, despite the mishap with our campsite on arrival. We had loved our time there.

Next stop was a couple of hours south down the coast. Peñíscola, we’re coming for you!

Saturday 26th May 2024

We arrived at Peñíscola and found our way to the Aire just outside of town. It was a privately run Aire and cost us just 7Euros with water and disposal and also a toilet. In fact, it was almost like a cheap campsite than a parking area, and when we arrived the other vans all had their awnings and chairs and tables out. Because of this, we decided to temporarily set up our tailgate awning to have a shower, and use the cadac to cook our paella for tea. We managed a shower but just as we finished our paella the owner of the Aire came round and told us off.

To be fair, we would never have left the tailgate tent up, but she made it very clear we weren’t supposed to have it, so we dissembled it with our tail between our legs and retreated into town for a walk and a couple of drinks. Interestingly we noticed that everyone else had clearly seen her coming as all the chairs and tables outside everyone else’s vans had vanished. They’d either seen her coming or also had a telling off!

Peniscola on a Saturday night was super fun! We had a brilliant evening enjoying the beach bars with the chill out sunset tunes. The beach here runs for miles and is that beautiful picture perfect sand. As if this isn’t enough, the backdrop is the magnificent Peniscola Castle, made famous by the film El Sid, which used the beach area here with the castle as a backdrop for the battle scene. The Castle and its mound reminded us of St Michel’s Mount. We enjoyed our walk along the promenade towards the castle and back during the evening and were surprised when we learnt we’d clocked up 5 miles in doing so!

Motorhome Aire at Peniscola

Sunday 27 May

Before we left Peniscola, we moved the van into the centre of town and explored the mound in a little more detail. The steep and winding streets were charming and full of interesting shops and restaurants, some with a sea view. Game of thrones was filmed in the park directly under the castle grounds, but as it wasnt dog friendly, plus we haven’t actually watched Game of Thrones, we skipped it.

From Peniscola, we made a relatively short journey south to the very small resort of Mon of a, just North of Valencia. We weren’t quite ready to leave the seaside and Keith found a terrific campsite right on the beach. It was a basic place, but with a 10Euro price tag with that including electricity too, it was a complete bargain. The beach was 10 steps away, and the sea the most incredible turquoise blue. After 3 full on travel days – with some serious sight seeing thrown in too, we were ready to have an afternoon chilling on the beach. Which is exactly what we did!